Rivers of Gold Expedition

9 days / 8 nights

Traverse the Santa Fe National Park encompassing both Pacific and Atlantic slopes of Panama’s Cordillera Central. This expedition takes you through four magnificent and very distinct life zones, (Pacific pre montane forests, tropical cloud forests, elfin forest, and Caribbean lowland rainforest), up and over the continental divide from the town of Santa Fe de Veraguas, and ending at Belen, where ChristopherColumbus attempted the first mainland settlement in 1503. Gold, which was what the Spaniards’ coveted the most in these lands, still drives the economy of the most isolated villages of Caribbean Panama. It is not uncommon to find local gold prospectors with their wooden pans and makeshift gasoline pumps.